2014 Range Rover Tyres and Suspension for Australian conditions.

I reckon the "post trip" report may become one of the most valuable bits of reading for late model Range Rover owners intending on doing what many of us want to do - that is, hang a house off the back of it and drive beyond the black stump. Chapter 1 would be the Adventures on the Gibb authored by Greg and then Chapter 2 by you on the Plenty.

In some of the literature they (journo's) quote the number of "testing hours" LR subjected the Range Rover to in all sorts of terrain but I doubt that anything they did resembled the real life use that we're talking about here. If they did you would have thought that they would have given more consideration to the tyre options and at least design the car so it could be ordered with higher profile mainstream AT tyres (Cooper, BFG etc etc). Toby Hagon did a test drive in the outback - except that all the photos show the car completely unladen - and the only drama he had was with the tyres. I'd love a guy like him to actually convince LR to give him a RR to test under load on a long outback trip. I might tweet him. Nothing to loose I guess.

Indeed, a TPMS was the best thing on board when i did the Birdsville and Stresleki in September, I jumped between pressure and temp every 30 minutes or so.

Had the valve mounted Tyredog, but in hindsite, if i had the time would have gone for the internally mounted ones. But these did the job well.

Oh, the new tyre dogs can do multiple wheels now

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Originally Posted by Ozjet

Chapter 1 would be the Adventures on the Gibb authored by Greg and then Chapter 2 by you on the Plenty.

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How do the 2 roads compare for their traffic and normal condition? The Plenty didn't seem very popular when I drove west from Jervois back in 2008 and that section of the road at least was quite good.

Good question Graeme, and I'm not certain TBH but I guesswe would have Members on here that would have done both, possibly towing too; I gather re the Plenty (from reading I've done) the road on the NT side can vary quite a bit, from post grading "smooth as a baby's bum" / easy 90-100km/hr cruise in many places; to bone jarring 25km/hr max speed sections post school holidays "over use" or post rain (ie mud / ruts drying out etc). I have no doubt alot of luck re: timing comes into play for travellers at various times.

Like most people we will make a final decsion on whether we head acrooss from Boulia (but a strong desire to) or head on the LONG Northern detour ( :() a few days prior once we have spoken with management at Gemtree / Tobermorey / Jervois Homestead re condition of the route.


Boulia to Alice Springs WHICH WAY ????? @ ExplorOz Forum

I'm considering route options to get from Gemtree to Bourke after a group trip next winter as a single vehicle in my D4 with 17" LTs not towing anything, so roads will only need to be passable rather than good enough for your rig.

Lucky you Graeme :p (should be a cinch in the D4 on LT's)
Lets hope you dont pass me stuck on the side of the road...! :(

I've done the Gibb twice - separated by a gap of about 20 year. I can't speak for the other road. I did it both times in the July school holidays and both times the road surface has been pretty similar. You can either drive over 80kmh because the road is smooth enough or you're forced to drive at that speed over the corrugations where the ride starts to smooth off (so either way I travel at about 80kmh) The difference between the first time I did it and the last time I did it was the amount of traffic. Second time (about 3 years ago) it was quite busy - making it nearly impossible to stay at the speed that's best for you for any length of time. It can also be pretty treacherous because of the speed that some cars drive (especially overseas tourists in those Land Cruiser Britz campers things).

Both times we encountered vehicles that were stranded because they had run out of tyres however, I think that all these vehicles had the the same things in common. Either they were running the equivalent of Dunlop Grand Trek type tyres or they were running tyres that were quite worn. Both times I've done the Gibb I've run near new Coopers (first time) and BFGs (second time). All the friends we've ever travelled with on the Gibb have all had similar tyres to us (that is, newish Coopers, BFGs etc) and none of us have ever had a failure.

The Gibb has a reputation for breaking suspension and for killing tyres. Sensible tyre choice and driving style mitigate against falling victim to it. However, I'm not sure that with the RR you have a lot of choice - particularly with the tyre choice and then consequently the ability to manipulate tyre pressure to the same extent to help with the ride as you do with other vehicles. Seems that whatever road you choose to take with the Rangie on you're going to have to take a whole lot of spare rubber and probably spare shockies.

It's all a bit of a bugger really.

Having also driven the Gibb a couple of times, and most recently the horrible Drysdale/Mitchell roads, I can't say I'd do that section again in my car, particularly if towing a camper. Didn't seem to matter what combination of tyre pressure and speed I used, I was never comfortable with it. And, as I've written, it turned pear-shaped in a big way.
If we were to go up that way again, I'd be sorely tempted to leave the car and trailer at Drysdale and take a fixed wing flight up to the falls. Not quite the same, but less stressful.
(And worth noting that we didn't lose any rubber, just the one shockie.)

Greg, what tyres were you actually running at the time of the suspension failure? I'm somewhat buoyed by that bit of info. Somehow I was thinking that you had trouble with tyres as well.

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Originally Posted by Ozjet

Greg, what tyres were you actually running at the time of the suspension failure? I'm somewhat buoyed by that bit of info. Somehow I was thinking that you had trouble with tyres as well.

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I was running Cooper Zeon 275/45/20.

No trouble with them at all, except as I say, being such low profile, it was nerve-wracking trying to find the right balance between pressure (therefore ride) to provide as much cushioning as possible, given the lack of sidewall. I was too nervous to drop them below about 33psi (cold), and on the rough stuff that rose pretty quickly with heat to 40-43psi, so I'd stop and drop them further...which of course meant that when they cooled, the pressure would drop to 30 or less. (I was monitoring pressures and temperatures with a Tyredog system in the car.)